I can't beat the halfling mages. Could someone please help me?

Please help me???

They have combat and spell protections, so breach and use secret word or spell thrust. I think they go invisible as well so detect invisibility. I'd haste and try to spread out your fighters so all the mages are being attacked to disrupt their spellcasting.

Please help me???

Thanks. What is breach?

Breach is a nice 5th level mage spell that removes a lot of the protection spells that any enemy mage is sure to put up around him/herself... Yah, those shrimps were tougher than I thought - you might try summoning some serious monsters to distract &/or cause an initial wave of damage; Fire Elementals are usually great... Also Cloudkill can be useful to disrupt enemy spellcasting... I think I myself tried the usual Web/repeated Fireballs combo somewhere in that battle to good effect, mopping up with Magic Missiles or arrows... good luck with the quest - ain't the easiest one of the bunch.

My favorite trick with this kind of mage+fighters combination is to cast a Chaos spell on the lead mage FIRST. If you're fast enough (always works very well if your mage is wearing the 'Robe of Vecna), you'll disrupt all of their fighters - allowing you to concentrate on the mages.

On average, I'd say that 90% of fighters are always affected, and the mages are effected around 75% of the time. Opponent Mages can still cast spells when they are confused (my can't??) but when they do it is MUCH LESS often and more haphazard.

Once the Chaos spell has been cast, cast a breach spell to remove the mages major defences. Remember, with this tactic, ignore the fighters after the Chaos spell has taken hold and concentrate on the mages.

You might also try some pre-fight preparations like:
Strength of One
Chant
Haste (A MUST in a difficult battle)
Aid (priest)
Draw upon holy might (priest and/or innate)
Defensive harmony (priest)
Chaotic commands (if your opponent likes to use stun or confusion spells)
etc. etc.
These pre-fight spells significantly improve the odds!

If it is STILL too much for you, then you might try a ranged attack combo ie
Cast web into the area (while they are still in the blacked out area of the map). Do it around four times and then cast cloud kill into the area. Then wait until the spells have killed them or injured them before going to finish them off.


Once more though, if you don't have the Robe of Vecna, buy it from Deidre in the adventure mart (it's only about 16,000 GP when you have a reputation of 20) and it speeds up your mage casting by x4. It also sets your base armour rating to AC4 (the only robe that is actual armour too). Of course, you can only do this once you leave the sphere...


[This message has been edited by Skunk (edited 09-11-2001).]

One last thing.
Learn from your opponents!
Ask yourself:
1. What makes their attack a pain and how can I overcome it?
2. More importantly, can I duplicate this tactic on another opponent?

i.e.
1. The idea for using Chaos came courtesy of battles with the MindFlayers

2. Goblins ('cause they're small and have crap hp) like to use entangle (if you give them a chance) and then use their archers to pelt you while your imprisoned. This is the origin of the web/cloudkill tactic.

3. I also (sometimes) use a hit and run tactic that I learned from the guard on the second floor of Nalia's keep:
When you have haste on and are low on healing potions and are heavily injured - just run away out of sight, heal up, power up and run back to hit them hard once more. It's a nice tactic when you're desparate.

There are LOTS of tactics like these that you can adopt for yourself...

great wisdom from skunk there.

bg2 is far more spell reliant than bg1, so my first game i was getting nailed by mages every fight. i strongly suggest reading through the wizard spells and noting down which ones are primarily spell duelling ones.

detect illusion, spell thrust, dispel/remove magic, minor spell defelction, greater malison, lower resistance, breach, secret word, pierce magic, minor globe of invulnerability, minor spell turning, spell immunity, spell shield, globe of invulnerability, spell deflection, summon nishruu, true sight, ruby ray of reversal, spell turning, summon hakeashar, khelben's warding whip, pierce shield, spell strike, spell trap.

if youre just using spells as damage inflictors, the halfling mages will seem like peasants compared to the creatures youll face later.

I found the halfling mages tough, too. What I did was this:

1) Chaotic command on at least 3 party members (for my case, 1 melee fighter, 1 cleric and 1 mage since Minsc could use berserker rage)
2) Resist fear
3) Protection from evil
4) Defensive Harmony
5) Improved invisibility on druid

Then get druid to cast insect plague (100% spellcasting failure), while my own mages cast breach on the 2 most powerful halfling mages. Fighters charge up and whack halfling mages to pieces. In the meantime, cleric casts holy smite for all-round attack.

Warning: Some of the fights later in the planar sphere are even more challenging, but you'll find that out soon enoughhttp://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif

Yeh, but im not tellin!

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Hey, summmon a Nishruu or hakeashar, they are healed by magic, drain magic stuff, and remove spell protections. I had my party whoop the fighters, then let the Nishruu stand in front of the mages and get healed http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...es/biggrin.gif til their protections wore off. http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...miles/wink.gif
ATTN: It eats magic weapons! BTW, do the mages have any really good stuff?

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mages got good stuff

(Wish WE had a Hakeashar during the Planar Sphere http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif ... wow, Chaos vs mindflayers, eh? - another one to try out...looks like I have a lot to learn about spellcasting)

Err, I'm not too sure, but I think he meant he learnt to use Chaos because Mind Flayers liked to use it against him. Of course, my interpretation could be wrong, but just to let you know, Mind Flayers, and their ilk, have fairly high magic resistance.

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If you know where they are, you could cast Fireball when they can't see you yet.. That would help as well..It is cheesy, but hey! Who cares!!!

Just remembered that depending on what level you're on, the halfling mages may imprison or maze your characters. Your own mages should definitely cast spell immunity (abjuration) if possible. If this isn't possible, send some monsters in first to distract them.

True..Summon fire elementals, if possible.. They're pretty good fighters.

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